A 23-year-old Palestinian man, Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, has been detained by the Israeli military, without charge or any explanation, since 14 December. He has not been allowed visits from his family.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was detained by Israeli soldiers on 15 December, as he was on his way from his parents’ home, in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, to his work at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, next to Ramallah. Israeli soldiers detained him at the Zaatara checkpoint, close to the West Bank city of Nablus, and took him to the nearby Hawara military detention centre. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told his parents that he is now in Megiddo prison, in northern Israel, though his family have not been allowed to visit him. The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order in late December, allowing them to detain him without charge indefinitely. Detainees are denied the right to defend themselves or effectively challenge the legality of their detention because the authorities largely withhold the “evidence” against them from them and their lawyers. A military judge is understood to have reviewed the order on 5 January, at the Salem military court in the north of the West Bank. The military judge can cancel, reduce or uphold the order but has not yet made a decision. The Al Jazeera news website quoted an Israeli military spokesperson that day as saying that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was being held because he posed a “danger… to the security of the region” and that the details of his case were "confidential”.

The Israeli authorities have increased their use of administrative detention dramatically since October 2015: over 580 Palestinians were in administrative detention by the end of the year.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007 and became one of its performers in 2011, also training children in circus acts. He specializes in teaching children with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school.

The Palestinian Circus School, which is funded by various charities and other bodies, including the European Commission, has said that there is no basis to claims that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat, that his only crime is “making children happy” and that his life is dedicated to the circus. Established in 2006, the school’s mission is to train Palestinian children and youth in circus arts and thereby “strengthen the social, creative and physical potential of the Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society.”

When Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was 17 years old, he was arrested by Israeli security forces and held for one month, accused of throwing stones at an Israeli military jeep when he was aged between 12 and 14, which he denied. He told Palestinian Circus School colleagues that, during his detention, a military judge told him he would “never go back to the circus”.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is now detained inside Israel. This violates the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which stipulates that detainees from the population of an occupied territory must be detained within that territory. Relatives of Palestinians residing in the occupied West Bank have great difficulty obtaining permits to visit their family members detained in Israel.

Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – has for years been used by Israel as an alternative to using the criminal justice system to arrest, charge and prosecute people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association.

Many administrative detainees go on hunger strike in protest at being detained without charge. One such detainee, journalist Mohammed al-Qiq, has been on hunger strike since late November; and under new legislation the Israeli military have recently been able to threaten him with being force-fed. Another administrative detainee, Mohammed Allan, who had been on hunger strike for about eight weeks, was transferred on 10 August 2015 to the intensive care unit of Israel’s Soroka Medical Center, where medical staff refused to force-feed him. He stopped his hunger strike on 20 August after an Israeli High Court ruled his detention should be suspended because of his poor health and was subsequently transferred to Barzilai Medical Center. Israeli police rearrested him on 16 September as he was leaving the centre. He was finally released in November.

The level of violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories has escalated since 1 October 2015, and Israel’s use of apparently punitive measures against the Palestinian population has become more widespread. These measures include mass arrests and arbitrary detention, including administrative detention, and also demolition of houses belonging to families of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks against Israelis and the imposition of additional, arbitrary restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement. Israeli forces have made increasing use of excessive, in some cases lethal, force against Palestinians throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Israel has failed to protect Palestinians from a wave of attacks by settlers, particularly in Hebron and East Jerusalem. A growing number of Palestinians have targeted Israeli forces and civilians in stabbing and shooting attacks.

An Israeli military court will hear an appeal against the detention without charge of Palestinian circus performer Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha on 21 March. His mother was permitted to visit him in Israeli detention for the first time in over two months.

On 21 March, an Israeli military court will consider Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s appeal against his six-month administrative detention order. Administrative detention allows Israel to detain people without charge or trial while simultaneously denying them the right to defend themselves or effectively challenge the legality of their detention because the authorities largely withhold from them and their lawyers the “evidence” against them.

His mother - unable to see her son for over two months – visited Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha on 29 February in Megiddo prison in Israel, after the Israeli military authorities finally gave her a permit to travel. His detention inside Israel violates his rights under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which stipulates that detainees from the population of an occupied territory must be detained within that territory. Relatives of Palestinians residing in the occupied West Bank have great difficulty obtaining permits to visit their family members detained in Israel. After her visit, Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s mother posted a message on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/gvm6o46) where she spoke of the humiliating treatment parents visiting their Palestinian children in custody face, sometimes from soldiers not much over 20 years old who shout and insult them. She said that they bear it “for the sake of a 40 minute visit that passes in a glimpse of an eye”. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha asked her to thank everyone who has worked on his case throughout his detention but said that the children (some as young as 12 or 13) and disabled people held in Israeli prisons “deserve solidarity campaigns”. Despite his detention, he continues to entertain his fellow inmates with circus performances to make the “days pass … quickly”.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was arrested on 14 December 2015 at the Zaatara checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He is accused of membership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a political party with an armed wing. He is greatly missed at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, where he is a circus performer and teacher specializing in working with children with learning difficulties.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, 23, was detained by Israeli soldiers on 14 December 2015, as he was on his way from his parents’ home, in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, to his work at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, next to Ramallah. Israeli soldiers detained him at the Zaatara checkpoint, close to the West Bank city of Nablus, and took him to the nearby Hawara military detention centre. Later his parents were informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that he had been moved to Megiddo prison, in northern Israel. The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order around 25 December. A military judge reviewed and upheld the order on 5 January, at the Ofer military court in the north of the West Bank. A military judge can cancel, reduce or uphold an administrative detention order. The Al Jazeera news website quoted an Israeli military spokesperson that day as saying that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was being held because he posed a “danger… to the security of the region” and that the details of his case were "confidential”.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007 and became one of its performers in 2011, also training children in circus acts. He specializes in teaching children with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school. The Palestinian Circus School, which is funded by various charities and other bodies, including the European Commission, maintains that there is absolutely no basis to claims that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat, that his only crime is “making children happy” and that his life is dedicated to the circus. Established in 2006, the school’s mission is to train Palestinian children and youth in circus arts and thereby “strengthen the social, creative and physical potential of the Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society”.

Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – has for years been used by Israel as an alternative to using the criminal justice system to arrest, charge and prosecute people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association. The Israeli authorities have increased their use of administrative detention dramatically since October 2015: over 580 Palestinians were in administrative detention by the end of the year.

All but one of the Israeli prisons where Palestinian administrative detainees are held is located inside Israel. The detention of Palestinians inside Israel violates international law. Articles 49 and 76 of Fourth Geneva Convention stipulate that detainees from occupied territories must be detained in the occupied territory, not in the territory of the occupying power. If all Palestinian detainees were held in the OPT, their families would not need to enter Israel to visit them and the issue of permits would not arise. The Israeli authorities’ refusal to grant permits to thousands of relatives of Palestinian detainees is a punitive policy that penalizes both Palestinian detainees, by denying them regular visits or any visits at all, and their relatives. No such prohibition exists for relatives of Israeli prisoners.

An Israeli military court dismissed Palestinian circus performer Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s appeal against his detention without trial on 31 March. The military prosecution again denied him his right to challenge his detention by withholding much of their “evidence”.

Palestinian circus performer Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s appeal against his six month administrative detention order was rejected on 31 March by a military judge. Administrative detention allows Israel to detain people without charge or trial while denying them the right to defend themselves or effectively challenge the legality of their detention because the authorities largely withhold from them and their lawyers the “evidence” against them. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s detention order will expire on 13 June 2016, although it is renewable indefinitely.

During the hearing the military prosecution maintained that Mohammed Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat alleging that he carried out illegal activities with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP, a left-wing political party with an armed wing which is banned by Israel), but failed to provide information about these activities. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha and his lawyers were in the impossible position of trying to challenge his detention without having access to the necessary information for his defence.

In mid-March, Mohammed Faisal Abu Sakha was moved from Megiddo prison in northern Israel to Ketziot prison in the Negev (in Hebrew)/Naqab (in Arabic), southern Israel. Israel’s detention of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank inside Israel violates their rights under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which stipulates that detainees from the population of an occupied territory must be detained within that territory. Mohammed Faisal Abu Sakha has asked his family to thank all those who are campaigning on his behalf but reiterated his particular concern for Palestinian children detained by Israel, particularly those with mental and physical disabilities. As a circus performer and teacher at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, he specializes in working with children with learning difficulties.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, (23 years old) was detained by Israeli soldiers on 14 December 2015, on his way to his work at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, next to Ramallah. Israeli soldiers detained him at the Zaatara checkpoint, close to the West Bank city of Nablus, and took him to the nearby Hawara military detention centre. Later his parents were informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that he had been moved to Megiddo prison, in northern Israel. The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order on 25 December. A military judge reviewed and upheld the order on 5 January, at the Ofer military court in the north of the West Bank. On 21 March, a military judge heard an appeal against the six month order but dismissed it on 31 March. The Al Jazeera news website quoted an Israeli military spokesperson that day as saying that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was being held because he posed a “danger… to the security of the region” and that the details of his case were "confidential”.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007 becoming one of its performers in 2011. He also trains children in circus acts and specializes in children with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school. The Palestinian Circus School, which is funded by various charities and other bodies, including the European Commission, maintains that there is absolutely no basis to claims that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat, that his only crime is “making children happy” and that his life is dedicated to the circus. The school’s mission is to train Palestinian children and youth in circus arts and thereby “strengthen the social, creative and physical potential of the Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society”.

Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – is used by Israel as an alternative to using the criminal justice system to arrest, charge and prosecute people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association. The Israeli authorities increased their use of administrative detention dramatically since October 2015: over 580 Palestinians were in administrative detention by the end of 2015. The increase coincided with a resumption of administrative detention against children. In October 2015, three 17-year-old Jerusalem ID holders became the first children to be administratively detained in almost four years. In all, nine children were administratively detained between October 2015 and March 2016. One was later charged with an offence on expiry of his detention order, five were released on expiry of their orders and four remain in administrative detention as of April 2015. Defence for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) say that 422 Palestinian children between 12 and 17 years were held in Israeli military detention as of December 2015. They estimate that 500 – 700 are detained and prosecuted by Israeli military courts, most commonly on charges of stone throwing.

All but one of the Israeli prisons where Palestinian administrative detainees are held is located inside Israel. The detention of Palestinians inside Israel violates international law. Articles 49 and 76 of Fourth Geneva Convention stipulate that detainees from occupied territories must be detained in the occupied territory, not in the territory of the occupying power. This practice makes it very difficult for families of detainees, who require permits to enter Israel, to visit their relatives. Israeli authorities routinely refuse such permits in what amounts to punishment both of the families and the detainees. If all Palestinian detainees were held in the OPT, their families would not need to enter Israel to visit them and the issue of permits would not arise. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s family have visited him three times since his arrest.

On 13 June an Israeli military court renewed by a further six months the detention without charge of Palestinian circus performer Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha. His detention will be reviewed by a military judge on 15 June.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was on 13 June handed a second administrative detention order, which expires on 12 December, a year after his arrest. He had believed that he would be released on expiry of his first administrative detention order, under which he was held without charge or prospect of trial, but was informed at the last minute it had been renewed for a further six months. On 7 June Amnesty International was told by Israeli diplomats in the Netherlands that they did not expect his detention to be renewed. A military judge will review Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s detention on 15 June. The judge can cancel or uphold the order, or otherwise reduce its length. Amnesty International is concerned that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha may be imprisoned because of his alleged political affiliation or opinions.

Israel uses administrative detention to detain people without charge while withholding from them and their defence team any “evidence” against them. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is detained on the basis of vague accusations, and secret “evidence”.

In early June he was transferred from Ketziot prison in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel to Salem detention centre in the occupied West Bank and interrogated by Israel Security Agency (ISA) officers before being returned one week later to Ketziot prison.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a performer and teacher at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit in the West Bank. Prior to receiving his second detention order he said that, if released, he wanted only to be given a set of juggling batons. He asked that activists around the world campaign against Israel’s use of administrative detention and on behalf of Palestinian children detained by Israel.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, (24 years old) was detained by Israeli soldiers on 14 December 2015, on his way to work at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, next to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Israeli soldiers detained him at the Zaatara checkpoint, close to the West Bank city of Nablus, and took him to the nearby Hawara military detention centre. Later his parents were informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that he had been moved to Megiddo prison, in northern Israel. The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order on 25 December 2015. A military judge reviewed and upheld the order on 5 January 2016, at the Ofer military court in the north of the West Bank. On 21 March a military judge heard an appeal against the six-month order but dismissed it on 31 March. During the hearing the military prosecution maintained that Mohammed Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat alleging that he carried out illegal activities with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP, a left-wing political party with an armed wing which is banned by Israel), but failed to provide information about these activities. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha denies the accusation but he and his lawyers are in the impossible position of trying to challenge the detention without having access to the necessary information for his defence. In mid-March he was moved to Ketziot prison in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007, becoming one of its performers in 2011. He also trains children in circus acts and specializes in working with children with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school. The Palestinian Circus School, which is funded by various charities and other bodies, including the European Commission, maintains that there is absolutely no basis to claims that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat, that his only crime is “making children happy” and that his life is dedicated to the circus. The school’s mission is to train Palestinian children and youth in circus arts and thereby “strengthen the social, creative and physical potential of the Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society”.

Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – is used by Israel as an alternative to using the criminal justice system to arrest, charge and prosecute people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association. The Israeli authorities increased their use of administrative detention dramatically since October 2015: 692 Palestinians were in administrative detention by the end of April 2016, including 13 children.

All but one of the Israeli prisons holding Palestinian administrative detainees is located inside Israel. The detention of Palestinians inside Israel violates international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates that detainees from occupied territories must be held in the occupied territory, not in the territory of the occupying power. This practice makes it very difficult for families of detainees, who require permits to enter Israel, to visit their relatives. Israeli authorities routinely refuse such permits in what amounts to punishment both of the families and the detainees. If all Palestinian detainees were held in the OPT, their families would not need to enter Israel to visit them and the issue of permits would not arise.

The High Court of Israel accepted to review the case of Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha but, in a 5 December hearing, his lawyer decided to withdraw the petition after the judges indicated that they believed there was enough “evidence” in a secret file to justify his detention. His current period of administrative detention will end on 12 December.

Palestinian circus performer Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, 24, from Jenin in the Occupied West Bank, has been held by the Israeli authorities without charge or trial for nearly a year. Israeli forces arrested him on 14 December 2015, at Za’atara checkpoint. He was issued with a six-month administrative detention order on 25 December and then was issued with another six-month order on 13 June 2016.

After a previous appeal to a military court was unsuccessful, his legal team decided to petition Israel’s High Court to review the case. The court accepted the petition, and a hearing was held on 5 December at the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem. However, Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s lawyer decided to withdraw the petition after the judges were given the chance to review a file of secret “evidence” provided by the Israel Security Agency (ISA). Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha and his lawyer are unable to review this evidence, and are therefore unable to prepare a defence. This violates a central tenet of fair trials. The judges indicated to Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s lawyer that they considered that the material contained within the file was enough to justify the ISA’s contention that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha posed a “threat to the security of the state of Israel”, despite there being no new material in the file since December 2015. When it became clear that the court would not oppose the ISA, the lawyer decided not to continue with the hearing.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha remains held in Ketziot prison in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel and his current period of administrative detention ends on 12 December. A military court will decide whether to extend the detention, or release him. Amnesty International fears that the Israeli authorities – as they have done in many other such cases – are using administrative detention as a method of punishing Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha without prosecuting him, which would amount to arbitrary detention.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, a Palestinian circus performer aged 24, was detained by Israeli soldiers on 14 December 2015, on his way to work at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, next to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Israeli soldiers detained him at the Za’atara checkpoint, close to the West Bank city of Nablus, and took him to the nearby Hawara military detention centre. Later his parents were informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that he had been moved to Megiddo prison, in northern Israel. The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order on 25 December 2015. A military judge reviewed and upheld the order on 5 January 2016, at the Ofer military court in the West Bank, near Ramallah. On 21 March a military judge heard an appeal against the six-month order but dismissed it on 31 March. During the hearing the military prosecution maintained that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat alleging that he carried out illegal activities with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP, a left-wing political party with an armed wing which is banned by Israel), but failed to provide information about these activities. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha denies the accusation but he and his lawyers are in the impossible position of trying to challenge the detention without having access to the necessary information for his defence. In mid-March he was moved to Ketziot prison in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel, where he is still held.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007, becoming one of its performers in 2011. He also trains children in circus acts and specializes in working with children with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school. The Palestinian Circus School, which is funded by various charities and other bodies, including the European Commission, maintains that there is absolutely no basis to claims that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat, that his only crime is “making children happy” and that his life is dedicated to the circus. The school’s mission is to train Palestinian children and youth in circus arts and thereby “strengthen the social, creative and physical potential of the Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society”.

Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – is used by Israel as an alternative to using the criminal justice system to arrest, charge and prosecute people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association. The Israeli authorities increased their use of administrative detention dramatically since October 2015: 692 Palestinians were in administrative detention by the end of April 2016 – the last month for which reliable Israeli Prison Service Statistics are available – including 13 children.

Israeli courts – including the high court – have failed, over many years, to provide effective legal recourse to the thousands of Palestinian administrative detainees held without charge or trial on the basis of secret “evidence” withheld from them and their lawyers. To Amnesty International’s knowledge, the High Court has only ever annulled an administrative detention order in one case (in 1990), despite the fact that the practice violates the detainee’s right to a fair trial and can constitute arbitrary detention. Amnesty International also considers that Israel’s use of administrative detention itself may amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, given the detainee’s inability to know why they are being detained or when they will be released.

On 11 December the Israeli military renewed the administrative detention of Palestinian circus performer Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha for another six months. He has been held without charge or trial by the Israeli authorities for a year.

Palestinian circus performer Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, aged 24, from Jenin, in the Occupied West Bank, has been held by the Israeli authorities without charge or trial for a year. Israeli forces arrested him on 14 December 2015, at Za’atara checkpoint near Nablus. The order issued on 11 December is his third six-month administrative detention order. Although six months is the maximum period of detention for each order, there is no limit on how many times each order can be renewed. A hearing set for 13 December for a military judge to review the order at Ofer military court in the occupied West Bank was postponed – and no new hearing date was set – but it is extremely unlikely they will cancel the order.

At a hearing on 5 December at the Israeli High Court, the judges told Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s lawyer that they believed the secret “evidence” provided by the Israel Security Agency (ISA) justified the ISA’s contention that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha poses a “threat to the security of the State of Israel.” According to his lawyer, this is despite the fact that there has been no new material in the file since December 2015. However, the system of administrative detention means that neither Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha nor his lawyer gets to review the “evidence”, and can therefore not defend against it. This violates a central tenet of fair trial standards.

Amnesty International fears that the Israeli authorities – as they have done in many other such cases – are using administrative detention as a method of punishing Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha without prosecuting him, which would amount to arbitrary detention. Israel’s use of administrative detention itself may amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, given the detainee’s inability to know why they are being detained or when they will be released.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha, a Palestinian circus performer aged 24, was detained by Israeli soldiers on 14 December 2015, on his way to work at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, next to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Israeli soldiers detained him at the Za’atara checkpoint, close to the West Bank city of Nablus, and took him to the nearby Hawara military detention centre. Later his parents were informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that he had been moved to Megiddo prison, in northern Israel. The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order on 25 December 2015. A military judge reviewed and upheld the order on 5 January 2016, at the Ofer military court in the West Bank, near Ramallah. On 21 March a military judge heard an appeal against the six-month order but dismissed it on 31 March. During the hearing the military prosecution maintained that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat alleging that he carried out illegal activities with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP, a left-wing political party with an armed wing which is banned by Israel), but failed to provide information about these activities. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha denies the accusation but he and his lawyers are in the impossible position of trying to challenge the detention without having access to the necessary information for his defence. In mid-March he was moved to Ketziot prison in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel, where he is still held.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007, becoming one of its performers in 2011. He also trains children in circus acts and specializes in working with children with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school. The Palestinian Circus School, which is funded by various charities and other bodies, including the European Commission, maintains that there is absolutely no basis to claims that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat, that his only crime is “making children happy” and that his life is dedicated to the circus. The school’s mission is to train Palestinian children and youth in circus arts and thereby “strengthen the social, creative and physical potential of the Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society”.

Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – is used by Israel as an alternative to using the criminal justice system to arrest, charge and prosecute people suspected of criminal offences, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association. The Israeli authorities increased their use of administrative detention dramatically since October 2015: 692 Palestinians were in administrative detention by the end of April 2016 – the last month for which reliable Israeli Prison Service Statistics are available – including 13 children.

Israeli courts – including the high court – have failed, over many years, to provide effective legal recourse to the thousands of Palestinian administrative detainees held without charge or trial on the basis of secret “evidence” withheld from them and their lawyers. To Amnesty International’s knowledge, the High Court has only ever annulled an administrative detention order in one case (in 1990), despite the fact that the practice violates the detainee’s right to a fair trial and can constitute arbitrary detention. Amnesty International also considers that Israel’s use of administrative detention itself may amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, given the detainee’s inability to know why they are being detained or when they will be released.

On 12 June, Ofer Military Court, in the occupied West Bank near Ramallah, renewed the administrative detention order of Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha for three months. The Palestinian circus performer and teacher has been detained without charge or trial since 14 December 2015.

Ofer Military Court in the occupied West Bank renewed on 12 June the administrative detention order of 25-year-old Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha for a period of three months. His previous six-month administrative detention order expired on 11 June. This comes after the Israeli High Court in Jerusalem ruled on 10 May that the renewal of his administrative detention should be limited to only one additional three-month period. The High Court ruling came after Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha's lawyer, Mahmoud Hassan who works for the Palestinian prisoners’ rights NGO Addameer, filed an appeal against the renewal of his administrative detention order.

On 12 June, Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was not present during the court hearing. Amnesty International opposes the use of administrative detention because it violates the right to liberty and to a fair trial. Individuals can be held indefinitely without charge or trial, without being told the accusations against them or an opportunity to review the evidence and prepare a defence. Amnesty International also considers that Israel’s use of administrative detention itself may amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, given the detainee’s inability to know why they are being detained or when they will be released.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha continues to be held in Ketziot prison inside Israel in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides that detainees from the population of an occupied territory must be detained within that territory. His family, who lives in the occupied West Bank, must apply for permits from the Israeli authorities to visit him and have faced problems obtaining them. Permits for his mother and father were denied on “security” grounds for almost all of the last three months of 2016.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was detained by Israeli soldiers on 14 December 2015 in the occupied West Bank, while he was crossing the Zaatara military checkpoint near Nablus to go to his work in the town of Birzeit near Ramallah. He was taken to the nearby Hawara military detention centre. Later, his parents were informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that he had been moved to Megiddo prison in northern Israel. The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order on 25 December 2015. A military judge reviewed and upheld the order on 5 January 2016 at the Ofer Military Court in the occupied West Bank, near Ramallah. On 21 March 2016, a military judge heard an appeal against the six-month order but dismissed it on 31 March 2016. During the hearing, the military prosecution maintained that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat alleging that he carried out illegal activities with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP, a left-wing political party with an armed wing which is banned by Israel), but failed to provide information about these activities. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha denies the accusation, but he and his lawyers are in the impossible position of trying to challenge the detention without having access to the necessary information for his defence. In mid-March 2016, he was transferred to Ketziot prison, in southern Israel.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007, and became one of its performers in 2011. He also trains children in circus acts, specializing in teaching those with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school. The Palestinian Circus School, which is funded by various charities and other bodies, including the European Commission, maintains that there is absolutely no basis to claims that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha is a security threat, that his only crime is “making children happy” and that his life is dedicated to the circus. The school’s mission is to train Palestinian children and youth in circus arts and thereby “strengthen the social, creative and physical potential of the Palestinians, seeking to engage and empower them to become constructive actors in society.”

The 25-year-old circus performer took part in a 40-day hunger strike between 17 April and 27 May in protest at his administrative detention. He was among approximately 1,500 Palestinian prisoners and detainees who took part in the hunger strike in an act of protest at Israel’s unlawful policies. The hunger strikers made a series of demands, including calling for an end to Israel’s restrictions on family visits, and an end to the practices of administrative detention and solitary confinement. The strike was suspended on 27 May as a committee representing the prisoners negotiates with Israel’s Prison Service their demands during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is due to end on 24 June. Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha’s mother, Rajaa, also took part in the hunger strike in solidarity with her son and the other Palestinian hunger strikers.

Since Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza began in 1967, the Israeli authorities have arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of Palestinians, including prisoners of conscience, holding them indefinitely in administrative detention without charge or trial. Administrative detention – ostensibly introduced as an exceptional measure to detain people who pose an extreme and imminent danger to security – is used by Israel as an alternative to the criminal justice system to arrest, charge and prosecute people suspected of criminal offence, or to detain people who should not have been arrested at all. Orders can be renewed indefinitely and Amnesty International believes that some Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights.

Israeli courts – including the high court – have failed, over many years, to provide effective legal recourse to the thousands of Palestinian administrative detainees held without charge or trial on the basis of “secret evidence” withheld from them and their lawyers. To Amnesty International’s knowledge, the High Court has only ever annulled an administrative detention order in one case (in 1990) despite the fact that the practice violates the detainee’s right to a fair trial and can constitute arbitrary detention. As of the beginning of June 2017, there were 477 administrative detainees held without charge or trial by Israel, according to Israeli human rights organization Hamoked citing figures from the Israel Prison Service.

Palestinian circus performer and teacher Mohamed Faisal Abu Sakha was released on 30 August from Ketziot Prison in Israel. He spent nearly two years in administrative detention without being charged or tried. He has now returned home to his family in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

On 30 August, Palestinian circus performer and teacher Mohamed Faisal Abu Sakha was released from Ketziot Prison in Israel after spending 625 days in administrative detention without charge or trial. This came after an Israeli military appeal court decided on 12 July to release him on 30 August, ahead of the annual Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha, Arabic) that took place on 1 September. The Palestinian prisoners’ rights NGO Addameer, whose lawyer Mahmoud Hassan represented Mohamed Faisal Abu Sakha, had filed the appeal. He is back home with his family in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

Mohamed Faisal Abu Sakha was detained by Israeli soldiers on 14 December 2015 in the occupied West Bank, while he was crossing an Israeli military checkpoint on his way to work at the Palestinian Circus School. He was given a six-month administrative detention order on 25 December 2015, which was renewed twice. On 12 June, he was given a three-month administrative detention order, which was shortened on appeal. Israel’s military prosecution had alleged that Mohamed Faisal Abu Sakha carried out illegal activities with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP, a left-wing political party with an armed wing, which is banned by Israel) but failed to provide any evidence of these activities. Mohamed Faisal Abu Sakha denied the accusation. The 26-year-old was held inside Israel in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides that detainees from the population of an occupied territory must be detained within that territory.

Mohamed Faisal Abu Sakha spoke to Amnesty International on 6 September and delivered the following message of thanks to all those who took action on his behalf: “I love you all. I feel a part of you given how much you stood by me in your actions […] I want to thank everyone individually. I spent days on Facebook not knowing what to write. No words can express it enough.”

On his Facebook page, Mohamed Faisal Abu Sakha wrote to all his supporters: “From my heart, I would like to thank everybody who took a stand with me: in a word, photo, idea, message or a feeling during my detention in the jails of Israel’s occupation. Thank you for all the campaigns and efforts to support ending administrative detention.”

Speaking to Amnesty International, he added that he looks forward to returning to his work as a teacher at the Palestinian Circus School, where he specialises in teaching children with learning difficulties. He said that this will feel like he has fully returned to his normal life. “The circus school is a place where we connect with our humanity,” he told Amnesty. “The Palestinian Circus School, which I belong to, is an important part of building hope in our children for the future and for freedom,” he added on Facebook.

Thank you to all those who sent appeals. No further action is requested from the UA network.